Fodor's may use your email address to send you relevant information on site updates, account changes, and offers. For more information about your privacy and protection, please review our full Privacy Policy.

Hartford

Midway between New York City and Boston, Hartford is Connecticut's capital city and the former insurance capital of the United States. Founded in 1635 on the banks of the Connecticut River, Hartford was at various times home to authors Mark Twain and Harriet Beecher Stowe, inventors Samuel and Elizabeth Colt, landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, and Ella Grasso, the first woman to be elected a state governor. Today Hartford is poised for change, with a revitalized downtown core featuring a bustling convention center and a top-notch science museum, the Connecticut Science Center. The city is a destination on the verge of discovery.